On asking why

I work in tech support, and very often people will ask me why something happened---why did my hard drive fail, why did I lose all my data, why did the motherboard go bad. Usually I can't answer those questions---or I can, but the answer is "because it did." Because bad things happen.

People always ask why, when things---usually bad things---happen. Seldom is there an answer, and when there is, it is often unsatisfactory---a non-answer. People want to know why.

Well, why?

Most of the time it will make no difference to know why. Occasionally the knowledge is useful for planning preventative measures, if the event in question is preventable, but often it's just a fact, useless except to exist as an explanation---an explanation that will do no one any good.

When something tragic happens, people want to know why, they feel they can't move on until they know why. I wish it were possible to let go of the urge to know everything, when it is impossible to understand everything. When things don't make sense.

I wish it were possible for bad things never to happen, or only to happen in moderation. I wish people didn't have to look at each other with why in their eyes. Or I wish that when anyone else asked why, that someone would always have an answer that would make it better---I suppose this is why religion exists, to provide that universal why, and sometimes I envy people who can believe it, and be comforted.

I am so thankful no one ever asks me why about anything that matters, and that I have yet to ask it myself. I don't know why, and neither will anyone else, if it comes time for me to ask it.